Immigration enforcement becomes flashpoint in Maine Senate race after fatal shooting

Following the fatal shooting of a 25-year-old Colombian man by a federal agent, the issue of immigration enforcement has become a flashpoint in Maine's Senate race -- one of the most consequential of the year in the fight for control of the Senate.

On July 13, an ICE agent fatally shot Johan Sebastián Guerrero in Biddeford, Maine, after agents tried to stop the car he was driving.

Guerrero was not the target of the operation, Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, told ABC News. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said that Guerrero "illegally entered the United States on September 1, 2023, via the southern border." The DHS spokesperson said Guerrero was granted a work permit in May 2025.

Following the shooting, hundreds of protestors gathered across Biddeford to express their criticism of ICE and support for the victim’s family.

Graham Platner, who won the Democratic primary for Senate in June but withdrew just weeks later after a sexual assault allegation, which he denied, spent his campaign going after Republican Sen. Susan Collins for passing legislation that funded DHS. Platner formally ended his candidacy with a letter in which he slammed ICE in the final line.

Now it's former Maine Senate President and logger Troy Jackson who is poised to take on Collins once the party officially nominates him to replace Platner on the ballot this weekend. 

Jackson, who has earned the endorsement of many progressives, has called ICE "a rogue agency," and said it "needs to be dismantled because they give us nothing in this country but heartache and racism."

DHS has condemned rhetoric against ICE, which they say is fueling vehicle attacks against federal officers. 

The July 13 shooting also put a spotlight on Collins, who said after the shooting she urged DHS to "cease all non-urgent vehicle stops" and the administration temporarily did. However, soon after, President Donald Trump reversed the pause.

Collins, the Republican chair of the influential Senate Appropriations Committee, has portrayed herself as someone who has a direct line to the administration despite representing a blue state. In January, amid the federal government's deportation crackdown, Collins argued it was her conversations with former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem that led to a slowdown in operations -- which her opponent at the time refuted. 

Lance Dutson, a Republican consultant who worked on Collins's previous reelection campaigns, told ABC News that while Democrats may point to Trump's reversal as proof that her relationship with the administration is ineffective, he doesn't believe it undercuts Collins. Instead, he said, it shows she's "doing her best" to leverage her position for the good of her constituents.

"The thing that Collins has done, regardless of who the president is, is that she's prioritized having a good relationship with the federal government in order to support Maine ... we're highly dependent on federal money to keep the state working," Dutson said.

Jackson, meanwhile, has gathered widespread support among labor unions, which may strengthen his message on the issue of immigration enforcement, said Rob Glover, a political science professor at the University of Maine.

"Labor unions is where he's consistently drawn his base of support. ... There are whole industries in Maine that really rely upon immigrant labor and people who are here on visas, and it's just really been a scary time for a lot of these communities," Glover said. 

Glover added a clear challenge facing Jackson is whether he can build the same momentum that took Platner months to generate. The Platner campaign had raised over $21 million since the start of his bid before he dropped out of the race.

"Democrats in the state of Maine are going to fall in line behind Troy Jackson. ... The question is whether he can build," Glover said. "What was so amazing about Platner is he built this fundraising capacity that we've just never seen, and the ways in which people were so excited to be involved in his campaign, he had 15,000 active volunteers." 

'Devastation, heartbreak, significant anger'

On the ground, progressive organizers describe a community reeling from both the shooting and the turmoil in the Senate race.

Rev. Jodi Cohen Hayashida, with the Maine People's Alliance, a progressive organizing group which endorsed Platner before he withdrew, said the two events have compounded one another.

"What I have been hearing is a combination of absolute devastation, heartbreak, significant anger," Hayashida said, adding that organizers had warned since a surge in ICE activity last winter that the agency's practices "were going to result in someone being killed." 

"The Democratic establishment has failed the people of this state and of this country," Hayashida said, who also argued calling for the abolition of ICE is the "baseline" for candidates seeking to replace Platner. 

Maine State Rep. Mana Abdi said the Democratic Party risks losing a generation of voters, including those energized by Platner's campaign, if the party doesn't take a strong enough position on immigration enforcement. 

Despite that, Abdi said organizers are urging voters discouraged by the shooting and the Senate race not to disengage entirely. 

"It's okay to feel disengaged," Abdi said. "Take the time you need, but come back."